Parizad Mistry, right, Fraser Health Authority’s lead HR consultant on the Surrey Memorial Hospital project, in part of the new building with her recruitment team: Katherine Scarborough, left, James Nielsen and Dorothy Troughton.wayne leidenfrost
/ Vancouver Sun

Carla Samms, who has a degree in respiratory therapy from Algonquin College in Ontario, moved to New Westminster three months ago after accepting a job in the new emergency facility at Surrey Memorial Hospital. So far the hospital has hired 39 respiratory therapists, and another 21 will be needed before the critical-care tower opens in June.Kim Stallknecht
/ PNG

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When the gleaming glass doors of Surrey Memorial Hospital’s new emergency department open to the public on Oct. 1, an army of nurses, doctors, technicians and medical specialists will be ready at their posts.

Hiring several hundred of Canada’s most sought-after professionals isn’t a task one begins a few months before opening, said Parizad Mistry, Fraser Health Authority’s lead human-resources consultant for this project.

She began designing a recruitment strategy five years ago to fill approximately 650 full-time positions needed for both the new ER and the critical-care tower (the latter opens in June).

“We knew well in advance we had a shortage of quality emergency-trained nurses in B.C.,” Mistry said. Nurses must take specialty postgraduate training that’s both intensive and costly before they’re qualified to work in emergency, and the new ER needed 160 nurses.

The hiring team began its search close to home, advertising new positions to the internal pool of applicants already qualified and employed by Fraser Health.

It also contacted nursing colleges such as BCIT, inviting new graduates to apply for positions as early as 2011.

“Ideally we wanted someone who’s familiar with their community and wants to give back to their community,” said James Nielsen, a managing consultant with recruitment services at Fraser Health.

But for some positions — such as respiratory therapists, physiotherapists and clinical pharmacists — it was necessary to look outside of B.C., even outside of Canada.

Nielsen oversaw a recruitment strategy that used Fraser Health’s careers website, social media and ads in Canadian and British medical journals to paint a compelling picture of Surrey Memorial Hospital as a cutting-edge workplace, and of the Lower Mainland as an attractive place to live.

Overall, the strategy has been quite successful at attracting talent, he said. Fewer than 10 positions remain to be filled in the new emergency department, and the hiring team is on schedule to have the critical-care tower fully staffed by spring.

Most of the new hires are from B.C. and other provinces in Canada. Five new staff will be arriving from the U.K. and one from South Africa.

Carla Samms was impressed by descriptions of an enthusiastic, tight-knit medical team and the facility’s state-of-the-art technology.

She graduated last year from Algonquin College in Ontario with a three-year degree in respiratory therapy. Her program co-ordinator told her about the job opportunities at Surrey Memorial and she promptly applied.

“Being a new grad exposed to that experience, I couldn’t turn it down,” she said. She moved to New Westminster three months ago; Fraser Health provided her with a relocation incentive to cover some of her moving costs.

So far, 39 respiratory therapists have been hired, including 12 from Ontario and Alberta, and the rest from B.C. Another 21 will be needed before the critical-care tower opens in June.

Sara Coffey graduated with a nursing degree in July 2012 from BCIT and applied for a few different jobs, including a position in the new Surrey Memorial emergency department. During the job interview, Coffey heard about some of the new facility’s technological innovations, and her mind was made up.

She took the job, and the Fraser Health Authority funded several months of postgraduate specialty training required to work as an emergency nurse.

Over the last three years, Fraser Health has funded more than 200 seats of specialty education as part of the hiring process. “That is a lot of funding,” Mistry said. Specialty training for one person costs between $8,000 and $20,000.

The opportunity to work in one of the largest and best-equipped emergency departments in Canada has been a major draw for new employees like Coffey and Samms. The new ER is designed with patient care in mind, bringing medical staff to the patients instead of the other way around.

In a traditional emergency room, patients arrive at triage, where they then wait to be called by a registration clerk and then wait some more until they are moved to the right department.

In the new facility, patients who arrive in emergency will have a brief consultation with a nurse before being put in a bed in the appropriate zone, depending on the severity of their condition. Registration clerks, nurses and technicians will come to the patients’ bed sides to record their information and perform preliminary procedures.

Some of the technology that makes this possible includes portable equipment, such as ventilators; electronic stretchers that can weigh and reposition patients; computers at every bedside, where doctors and staff can insert smart cards and call up patient information; and Star Trek-like devices staff wear around their necks to communicate with each other.

Craig Murray, an emergency doctor and chief of the emergency department at Surrey Memorial, expects shorter waiting times for patients and a lot more elbow room for staff.

For years he’s been working in a crowded ER currently serving more than double the number of patients for which it was originally designed. Only curtains and a few feet of space separate patients.

“When I’m standing next to the bedside, my back’s against the curtain and often I’m bumping into the family members on the other side,” Murray said.

He knows how difficult it is to talk about personal health issues when there’s someone only a few feet away behind a curtain.

“Issues around patient privacy and dignity are things that really stress the staff out,” he said.

The new emergency department is five times larger than the old one, and has more than 100 single-patient treatment rooms separated by sliding glass doors instead of curtains.

“I can’t wait for the new department,” Murray said. “We’ve been working in a very cramped space for many years and I think this will be transformational in terms of the patient care we can provide.”

Next Saturday:

A look at Surrey Memorial’s new pediatric emergency department, which will be the largest of its kind in Canada when it opens to the public Oct. 1.

A look at the new medical staff

The Fraser Health Authority began designing a strategy five years ago to hire the 650 medical professionals required to staff the Surrey Memorial Hospital’s new emergency department and critical tower. These jobs, which are subject to change as the hiring process continues, include:

350 registered nurses

55 respiratory therapists

18 pharmacists

15 pharmacy technicians

10 social workers

15 physiotherapists

11 occupational therapists

8 speech and language pathologists and assistants

12 rehab assistants

8 mental health care workers

12 porters

12 acute care aides

18 sterile processing technicians

5 program clerks

30 unit clerks

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